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A s E R m: o isr 






DELIVERED ON THE 



Day of Natioj^al Thanksgiving, 



DECEMBER 7, 1865 




f Ijjwoutfe (!!i;ou5)t:t0utJ0WjU (i^ltuvclj, ^ittsil>u)*()lt, ^mw'w. 



Rev. henry D. MOORE, 

PASTOR. 



PITTSBURGH: 
PRINTED BY W. S.v HAVEN, CORNER OF WOOD AND THIRD STREETS. 

18 6 6. 



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A. SERMON 



DELIVERED ON THE 



Day of Natioml Thanksgiving, 



DECEJIBER 7, 1865, 



^lymautlt (Hiongrcgatlaual (Khuvcit, ^itt^bui^jjh, ^emi'ii. 



Rev. henry D. MO 

PASTOR. 





PITTSBURGH: 
PRINTED BY W. S. IIAVEX, CORNER OE WOOD AND THIRD STREETS. 

18 6 6. 



Ca 



Pittsburgh, December 8tb, 1865. 
Rev. H. D. Moore, 

Dear Sir — Having listeaed vrith great pleasure to your 
Sermon, delivered in Ihe Plymouth Congregational Church, on Thanksgiving 
morning, and believing that its circulation would be productive of great good, 
we respectfully solicit a copy for publication. 

Very truly, yours, 

JOHN A. EMERY, 
OTIS BROWN, 
JOEL SMITH, Jr., 

Co7nmittee. 



Pittsburgh, December 11th, I860. 
Gentlemen — 

Your note of the 8th in.st. was duly received. I thank you 
for the kind and flattering terms in which you are pleased to speak of my 
Thanksgiving Sermon. With the hope that you may not be altogether dis- 
appointed in your design in asking the Sermon for publication, I herewith 
place it in your hands. 

Yours truly, 

HENRY D. MOORE, 

To John A. Emery, Oris Brown, Joel Smith, Jr., Committee. 



t 



SERMON. 



" RIGHTEOUSNESS EXALTETH A NATION ; BUT SIN IS A REPROACH 
TO ANY PEOPLE."— Proverbs 14 : 34. 

The great Rebellion which for four long, weary years, 
clouded the brightness, and hushed the songs, and checked the 
festivities of our Annual Thanksgiving, has been crushed ; its 
battle array broken and scattered ; its leaders branded forever, by 
the popular voice, with the infamy of treason ; its deluded masses, 
by the retributive fortunes of an unholy resistance to the Govern- 
ment, reduced to waste and poverty, to political and social impo- 
tency, and to dependence for supplies, and homes, and protection 
upon the very arm they sought to break, and upon the very heart 
they sought to pierce; the rebellious, chastised and still sullen chil- 
dren, arc clinging to the mother whom they covered with tears and 
blood, and are living upon the fountains of her breast, which flow 
as freely toward them, as if their matricidal hands had not been 
swift to slay her. 

The great Avar is done ! The monotone of wailing which is 
borne on every wind and from almost every home, because of loved 
ones slain on the battle field, is now relieved of its bitter and 
despairing significance by the full chorus of victory which is beino- 
shouted from the mountains to the prairies, and from the lakes to 
the sea ; while the loyal millions of the land come, to-day, with the 
sacrifice of memory and of tears, to hallow the graves of the mar- 
tyrs. 

The great conflict of arms is ended I The noise of busy pre- 
paration and of the armed tramp, has given place, in our ears, 
to the hum of all the arts of industry ; and the fears of our homes, 
and the alarm beats of our hearts, have subsided to a serene calm 
under the gentle waving of the Olive Branch of Peace. The 
ploughshare, which, in fulfilment of the Prophecy of Joel, was 



6 

beaten into the sword, has been, in fulfilment of the Prophecy of 
Isaiah, beaten back again into the ploughshare ; and the hand 
which, at the call of patriotism, loosed its hold of the plough, and 
grasped the sword, and with it reaped the harvest of death on the 
battle field, has again guided the ploughshare over the broad, teem- 
ing acres of the peaceful homestead ; and the deep furrows it has 
turned up to the genial sun and the gentle dews, have smiled with 
the flowering beauty, and waved with the green, and golden, and 
grateful plenty of the harvest. The great and mighty government 
which was shaken to its centre, while the world waited to see it 
topple and fall, has vindicated its integrity and maintained its su- 
premacy, and has come forth from the fiery, and bloody, and 
terrible ordeal, mightier than ever, consecrated by the awful cere- 
mony of blood, to holier purposes, and is marching on, beyond 
the ranks of all the nations, to a grander destiny ; and our Flag 
which went down at Sumter amid the silence, and tears, and 
prayers of the bowed patriot band to receive the baptism of fire 
and blood, has gone up again to unfold its stars in a purer heaven, 
and to float its stripes, with added symbols of beauty and power, 
over a broader domain, and over a happier and freer people. 

For these, and the innumerable blessings which have been 
poured with an unsparing hand upon our land and people, and 
which have most kindly and beneficently mingled with and lighted 
up the dark providences whose awful dispensations have lowered 
upon us : — for these, and the innumerable blessings of our God, 
and the God of our Fathers, who is merciful, as well as just, and 
whose merciful kindness guided us through the paths of the four 
long years of war — paths, which though blasted with the light- 
nings of His wrath, were yet all overarched with the bow of 
promise : — for these blessings, the hopes and foretastes of which 
made us able to bear the strokes of the Almighty Hand which 
desolated alike the Capitol mansion and the lowliest hovel of the 
land — leveling all ranks, and laying our mighty President low in 
death beside the humblest soldier : — for all these blessings, we are 
to-day gathered, by the Proclamation of the Nation's Chief, to 
render devout and hearty thanksgiving to Almighty God. In all 
our sanctuaries throughout the land, the people are convoked Avith 
the memories of God's unspeakable goodness clustering within 
them, and with the voice of thanksgiving, and with grateful praise. 



And God sees us from His High and Holy Tabernacle, and He 
bo^ys down His ear to hear the praises we bring to Him from om- 
altars and our hearts ; and if our thanksgivings are mingled with 
the tones of plaintive and sincere repentance for, and confession of 
all our sins — if Ave praise the goodness of God, which leads us to 
repentance — then His ear will be filled with music, to Him sweeter 
far than when the hosts of the angels chaunt their chorals of glory 
around His Throne in heaven. 

We occupy to-day a stand point from which we can look back, 
and around, and beyond, and we may profitably contemplate the 
past, the present and the future, in the light of God's Holy Truth 
— Truth which he has so thrillingly illustrated in the providences 
with which He has visited us, in the light of the truth of this text, 
"Righteousness exalteth a nation; but sin is a reproach to any 
people." Let us welcome and walk in the light, reveal it what, 
and lead it whither it may. The providences of God as concern- 
ing nations, as well as concerning individuals, are self revealino-. 
They unfold their meanings and purposes, and they unfold and 
disclose them to the men and the nations who stand still, and wait 
and watch to see the salvation of God. God reigns ; and thouo-h 
clouds and darkness are round about Him, yet still and forever 
righteousness and judgment are the habitation of His Throne ; and 
still and forever, light is sown for the righteous, amid whatever 
of gloom ; and gladness is sown for the upright in heart, amid 
whatever of sorrow. 

" God's purposes are ripening fast." 
And though 

" Blind unbelief is sure to err, 
And scan his works in vain," 

Yet still and forever — 

" God is His own interpreter, 
And He will make it plain." 

Let US then seek for light, that we may be guided in our duties 
as Christian citizens. Let us meditate upon the facts and prin- 
ciples which are disclosed to view in the history of our recent past ; 
the origin and animus of our terrible war ; the miracles of Provi- 
dence, of Divine Interposition, which give tone to the picture of 
our national desolation, and which led us by an irresistible hand 
an overruling guidance, to deal justice and equity in this broad 



land; and the glorious results ■which have followed, and arc still to 
follow our national obedience to the irrevocable command, ''Break 
ye every yoke, and let the oppressed go free!" And our medi- 
tations upon these facts and principles involved in our recent his- 
tory, are intended as an argument in vindication of 

The Motive and Moral Grandeur of the Proclamation of 
Emancipation, as separate and distinguished from its 
Constitutional avarrant upon Military Necessity. 

It is now evident to every candid mind — whatever may have 
been our views and fears heretofore — that the cause of our terrible 
war was the holding in bondage, by the sanctions and covenants 
of the Constitution, and by the legislation and government of the 
Congress, and of the States, of millions of our fellow beings upon 
our soil. It is also a fact, and has passed into irreclaimable his- 
tory, never to be glossed or margined by sophistries, that the first 
blow of the war Avas struck in the interests of human bondage, in 
the defence of the system and for its aggression. The Flag of 
the Free, as it was called and hailed the world over, went down at 
Sumter at the bidding, not so much of the defenders of Slavery — 
for a system so well and amply defended, hardly needed defenders 

as of the proud, imperious, cliivalric human bondage proijayand- 

ists ' the Fla<T came down at the thunder of cannon of the 
enemies of Liberty! For two whole years, nearly, the loyal ba- 
talHons of the country, Avho leaped to arms at the call of the Gov- 
ernment, were fighting for, they knew not what! While the armies 
of the rebellion were fighting — not for the existence, nor yet for 
the defence of Slavery, for the existence of Slavery was covenanted 
and sanctioned, and its defence was amply guaranteed in the Con- 
stitution and the legislation of the land — but for the supremacy 
over this broad land of the system of human bondage ! I am sim- 
ply and candidly repeating the facts of history, which have been 
so recently traced 'in characters of blood — facts which have been 
accepted by the Avorld. If the South had been fighting for the 
defence of Slavery, under the sanctions and guarantees of the Con- 
stitution, then the South could have appealed to the governments 
of the Old World for help against the covenant-breakers of the 
North, and Europe Avould have rushed to her rescue with her 



9 

armed hosts ! But such was not the fact. The North was no cov- 
enant breaker ! The Government was most stubbornly set against 
any interference with the constitutional rights and guarantees of 
the system of Slavery. So far were the North and the Govern- 
ment from interfering with Slavery rights and guarantees, that 
they had overlaid and interlined the broad margin of the Consti- 
tution with interpretations, and commentaries, and compromises, 
extending, in point of fact, over vast areas, and in point of prin- 
ciple, over the whole country, the accursed system, and infusing 
an unconquerable and irresistible vigor into its maddened nerves, 
and ffxost malignant heart ! The South was fighting for no such 
thing as the defence of Slavery ; for no such thing as the sacred- 
ness of constitutional guarantees. The South was fighting for the 
supremacy of the system of Human bondage. The governments 
of Europe tried, in their hostility to the great Republic, to overlay 
the facts, and the principles involved, with diplomatic sophistry, but 
the stubborn things would not be overlaid, they lifted themselves 
up and shouted, and they have passed into monumental history, 
and are now without the shadow of controversy. When the Flag 
went down at Sumter, the proud and haughty Southron said, and 
for the moment it Avas true — so true, that tyrants rejoiced, and 
freemen w^ept — the Southron said, " Freedom goes down Avith the 
Flag, and our institution of Slavery triumphs over the land." 
Let me here repeat the facts I have presented, for God was in 
them, ruling and overruling them for the final overthrow of wrong, 
and for the glorious triumph and vindication of right. First. From 
the beginning to the end of the war, the armed hosts of the rebel- 
lion were fighting for the supremacy of the system of Human 
bondage — not for its existence, nor yet for its defence, for both 
were guaranteed — but for its supremacy over the whole land, as 
the end and the aim of the Government, and as the highest good 
of the acres, and the men, and the homes of the land. And 
Secondly. For nearly two whole years of the noise of war, and of 
garments rolled in blood, the loyal armies were fighting for, they 
knew not what ; for that, which in the clearest and best under- 
standing of it they could get, was most indefinitely and ambigu- 
ously stated to be the Flag and the Government. For two whole 
years, our fathers, and sons, and brothers went out from their 
homes to fight the bloody field, and to die for the Flag and the 
Government. 



10 

Let us look at this second fact, that we may show its reality and 
learn its lessons. 

The Government and the Flag were, prima facie, glorious things 
to fight for. Our bovs sung, as they marched forth to the field, 

" Rally round the Flag, boys, 

Give it to the breeze ; 

That's the banner we love, 

Oa the land and seas." 

As they went out to fight for the Flag, that was a pertinent and 
inspiring rallying song to sing, and so they sung it, and its music 
made our hearts leap within us, and our eyes to glisten with tears. 
But then, the North had a conscience, and that conscience Avas 
latently true to Liberty, and when the boys went out to fight, and 
so many of them never to come back again, God troubled that con- 
science. It became quick to reason, and God took care that it 
should reason right. It became sensitive to truth. It reasoned 
thus, " As things now stand or go, in logic and in fact, the Gov- 
ernment means bondage, and the Flag means protection to Slavery." 
It was a terrible conviction which thus flashed upon the Northern 
conscience. Garrison preached it a generation ago, but our con- 
" science is just awakened to it. We called Garrison, Ishmael and 
Infidel, but we found out at last that he was the friend of man, 
and his word the truth of God, only waiting to be confirmed in the 
facts of history. The Northern conscience reasons further, and 
says, " The Constitution is the basis of the Government and the 
Constitution guarantees Slavery. If our armies fight agninst 
Slavery, then, by construction and by fact, they fight against the 
Constitution which guarantees and defends Slavery. And the 
Flag is the protecting symbol of the Government, and is set for 
the defence of the Constitution, wherever it waves, and therefore, 
the Flag means protection to Slavery, and if our armies fight 
against that which the Flag protects, then they fight against the 
Flag." So the conscience of the loyal people reasoned, and rea- 
soned truly. The logic was irresistible, and as appalling as irresist- 
ible. Still the trumpet sounded forth to the war, and the men 
trooped and tramped to the carnage, to fight, for what ? For 
the Flag and the Government ! The North and the loyal people 
were not fighting against Slavery, intentionally and of set purpose 
Their blows told against Slavery, directed by the unseen sword of 



11 

the Lord and of Gideon, but tliey did not mean it so. The re 
bellious armies were avowedly fighting for Slavery; the "mudsills" 
were to go under, with the Flag, and Slavery was to triumph ; 
while the ranks and columns of the Government were not fighting 
against it for nearly two long years of blood. Still they fought, 
and bravely too, for something, for nothing, for this, and for that, 
for the Flag and the Government ! And still they sung, and died 
singing it, men and boys together — daring Generals and intrepid 
drummer-boys — 

'■' Rally round the Flag, boys, 
Give it to the breeze ; 
That's the banner we love, 
On the land and seas." 

And when Butler called the slaves within his lines " contraband of 
war," the people were as much amused at the legal cunning and 
military strategy of the General, as they were startled at his 
daring, and its possible results ; it was a flash of farce, on the 
tragic front of war. 

But when Fremont made a practical application of the contra- 
band doctrine, and proclaimed the slaves of rebels in his lines all 
free, the Government rebuked him, demanded his sword, and re- 
tired him in military disgrace. Butler's wit was amusing, though 
in reality it was true ; but Fremont's application of it was misrule 
and anarchy. The Constitution guarantees the largest liberty of 
speech, and therefore Butler's "contraband of war " passes un- 
challenged ; but the Constitution shelters no overt act of defiance, 
or opposition, and therefore Fremont's deed is annulled and 
branded, and the General himself accounted by the Government 
an unprofitable servant. The President did what he, as President, 
was required to do. It was the wrong thing done the right way, 
while Fremont's act was the right thing done the wrong way. 
The President said, " Fremont, you are right in motive, but your 
act is wroDg, the Constitution being judge; my motive is as yours, 
but I stand upon, and by my sacred oath, I administer the Con- 
stitution." How strange this complication, and how impotent were 
the hands of the Government ! The world saw the riddle and 
awaited its solution ; the world saw the paradox more and more 
startling and perplexing, and awaited the logic of events to reduce 
it to reason. The rebellion was armed and fighting for Slavery ; 



12 

the Government was fighting to put down the rebellion, but how 
could the Government put down the rebellion, and not touch 
Slavery, for which the rebellion was organized and armed ? For 
nearly two whole years of war, the loyal people in arms struck at 
the rebellion, while the Government spread its fostering and pecu- 
liar care over the thing which the rebellion defended ; and slaves 
who brought most reliable information into loyal camps, were re- 
warded by the Government with a prompt return to their rebel 
masters ! The Government commanded the army to strike ! Gen- 
erals said, "What shall we strike for?" The Government an- 
swered, "Strike for the Government and the Flag ! " The Gen- 
erals asked, "What shall we strike at?" The Government 
answered, "Strike at the rebellion!" The Generals and soldiers 
said, "But the source and power of the rebellion is Slavery; shall 
we strike at that, and break every chain, and let the oppressed go 
free?" The Government thundered, "No! under penalty of 
courts martial in every camp ! " And on rushed our ranks and 
columns of brave men, to obey orders, and to strike at the re- 
bellion ! 

What a picture this is, as we now look back upon it ! And 
what a picture it was then to many anxious and grieved eyes I 
And no wonder I The Constitution guaranteed the system for 
which the rebellion was armed. We do violence to our judg- 
ment and conscience, when we attempt to evade this point. The 
President, our beloved and lamented Lincoln, saw the dilemma, 
and felt its crushing weight ! The Confederate leaders saw it, 
and defied the Government, and invoked the powers of Europe to 
their aid ! It was an awful time ! Defeat followed defeat ! The 
Government Avavercd in its plans, and seemed almost imbecile in its 
purposes! No wonder I Its hands Avere manacled! Statesman- 
ship tried to untie the knot, and failed ; and when a sharp, daring 
sword was lifted to cut it, the voice of the Government cried in 
terror, "Hold!" and the sword paused in the air, and then fell 
from the hand of the warrior. It was a dark and awful time ! 
The Flag trailed in the dust and blood of battle, torn, and all its 
stars dimmed! The world looked on — part of it with prayers and 
tears ; part of it with indifference, and part of it with secret and 
ill-diso-uised delight. Our armies were beaten back ; panic gave 
the word and disaster followed ; treason ruled in the camp, and 



13 

outrunked loyalty along the lines; traitors hid themselves safely in 
gan-boats, and published bulletins to brave men to retreat shame- 
fully, or lie down in swamps to die. Brave men died gallantly on 
the battle field, but without any significant purpose to be sealed with 
their blood ! Our Flag was flouted with the contempt of the 
nations, and the American Eagle dimmed his eye, and drooped his 
wings, and uttered no scream ! As the stars in their courses fought 
against Sisera, so it seemed as if the very heavens were against us. 
We had the men, we had the money, and humanly speaking we 
had the power ; but neither the men, nor the money, nor the 
power, nor all of them combined, brought success ! Something 
was needed besides and above the men, and the money, and 
the power which men and money bring. The element of true 
power was wanting. One thing we lacked. We had courage, 
bravery, endurance, the spirit of sacrifice ; but one thing was 
lacking. It was an appalling spectacle, this tournament of death. ! 
The contending armies consumed and swallowed each other up, 
without the gain of vantage ground ! How great was our God in 
these dispensations, as we now look back upon them. God was 
mindful of us all the while, but the lesson He was teaching us we 
were slow to learn. With us it was a question of the triumph or 
defeat of the Government ; with God it was a question of the 
triumph or defeat of the Truth. With us it was a question of law 
and order ; with God it was a question of Justice and Purity. 
With us it was a question of power ; with God it was a question of 
equity. With us it was a question to be adjudicated by the SAvord; 
Avith^God it was a question to be arbitrated by righteousness. God 
was bringing us into His plans and methods, and Ave Avere loth to 
let go our hold upon ourselves. God said, "Your wealth, and your 
power, and your state, and your pomp of battle array, are ab- 
horrent to me; your sacrifices of blood I will not accept. The 
sacrifice which I will approve, and honor, and bless, is this, ' That 
ye break every yoke and let the oppressed go free.' " The Presi- 
dent Avas anxious and grieved, but quiet and firm. He retired to 
pray. Light daAvncd amid the gloom. Hope gleamed its light 
upon the night of despair. The President came forth from his 
closet, pale, but undaunted, and like strange music to men's hearts, 
came forth from. him the preliminary announcement of the Procla- 
mation of Emancipation. The Nation held its breath ! The new, 



14 

strange watchword — Freedom — Avas ■whispered in the camp and on 
the field. In due time, on the first day of January, one thousand 
eight hundred and sixty-three, came the Proclamation itself. It 
was received with august reverence, as we would receive an angel, 
in every home ; it was proclaimed at the head of the array, and the 
Flag floated out, with conscious pride, in the new air of Freedom, 
It struck terror into the hearts of our enemies, because it so sharply 
defined the principles and purposes of the contending armies, and 
the issues of the war. Some one said to the President, in view of 
his Proclamation, " Do you think the Lord is on our side ? " He 
answered, " I am not so much concerned as to whose side the Lord 
is on, as I am to know if I am on the Lord's side." The right 
hand of that great and good President, which penned in the stillness 
of the solemn night, the Proclamation of Emancipation for four 
millions of men, women and children, on our soil, was stronger then 
than all our armies combined. Thereafter xhe sword was graspeci 
by an idea, which had a heart in it ; it was the sword of the Lord 
and of Gideon ; and the bullet whistled along the path of death 
with a reason for it, and the victory was won ! The array of the 
loyal armies in their mighty tramp, thundered not such fear in the 
hearts of our enemies, as did that Proclamation by its awful whis- 
pers of Justice, Equity and Righteousness ! The pen, writing the 
bond of liberty, the charter of freedom, out-ran and out-thrust the 
sword, and greeted the victory forever ! 

" Beneath the rule of men entirely great, 
The Pen is mightier than the Sword. Itself a nothing ; 
But taking sorcery from the master hand, 
To paralyze the CiBsars, and to strilie 
The loud earth breathless." 

A new era dawned. Men looked as if God were speaking to 
them. Men smiled as if they heard God's voice marshalling them, 
and promising blessings to them. The President was unyielding. 
Treason howled at him ; traitors gnashed on him Avith their teeth. 
The assassin lurked for him at the halloAA^ed threshold of his home 
and at the sacred portals of the Capitol. Timid men were more 
hesitating than ever. Statesmen tried their arts upon him in vain ^ 
and then stood appalled at the master-stroke of a spirit they 
could not comprehend. But the President failed not of his word. 



15 

or his purpose, one jot or tittle. The Proclamation said, "The 

slaves are free, and their freedom shall be maintained." Said one 

of the Cabinet, " Say not maintained — for you know we might fail 

of that." The President answered, " They are free, and their 

freedom shall be maintained." The great King of Kings stood at 

his right hand, and the cord which bound the hands and the feet 

of the people were snapped asunder ! The soldiers were still in 

the camp, and they still marched forth to the field, and they still 

fought for the Government and the Flag. But now the Flag and 

the Government meant something higher and nobler than before. 

They still sung, but it was a new song they chaunted and chorused. 

They now sung, 

" Rally round the Flag, boys, rally once again, 
Shouting the battle cry of Freedom; 
Rally from the hill top, rally from the plain — 
Shouting the battle cry of Freedom." 

The gallant New York Seventh Regiment, composed of the 
wealth and fashion of that great metropolis, electrified the country 
by marching down Broadway, under the waving of flags arxd hand- 
kerchiefs, singing — 

"John Brown's bodj ies mouldering in the grave; 
His soul is marching on." 

In the darkest night of our trial, Mrs. Howe caught the inspira- 
tion of the spirit of Justice and of Emancipation, and her "Battle 
Hymn of the Republic " was the fore-runner of the Proclamation. 

" Mine eyes have seen the coming of the glory of the Lord ; 
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored; 
He has loosed the fateful lightnings of His terrible swift sword — 
For God is marching on. 

I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps ; 
We have builded Him an altar 'mid the evening dews and damps ; 
I have read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps ; 
His Truth is marching on. 

I have read a fiery gospel, writ in burnished rows of steel : 
As you deal with my contemners, so with you my grace shall deal ; 
Let the Hero born of woman crush the serpent with his heel; 
Eor God is marching on. 

He bath sounded forth the trumpet, that shall never call retreat; 
He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment-seat ; 
be swift my soul to answer Him, be jubilant my feet, 
Our 6oi is njarching on. 



16 

Mid the beauty of the lilies, Christ ■\ra? born across the soa ; 
With a fflory in His bosom that transfigures you and me : 
j\s He died to make men Holv, let us die to make men Free ; 
Our God is mo,rchinpc orL.'" 

The ground of the Proclamation of Emancipation was Military 
Necessity. The President was right. The only ground upon 
which the President could proclaim emancipation was that of 
Military Necessity. The Constitution shut every door against him 
but this one. The Constitution guaranteed Slavery. There was 
the wrong. The President was sworn to keep the Constitution in- 
violate, and to administer the Government upon it. He could not 
evade it, nor alter it, nor amend it. The spirit of Slavery brooded 
over and upon the beginnings of the Republic, and infused its 
poison into the infant life of the nation. Even the Declaration of 
Independence is shorn of its true glory, by its framers having 
yielded to the demands of Slavery, arrogant and unyielding even 
in that glorious period of new-fledged liberty. You remember the 
list of usurpations and of political crimes which that instrument 
portrayed and laid to the charge of the King of England. The 
greatest crime, as Jefferson Avrote the Declaration, which Avas 
charged upon George the Third, was that he enslaved men and 
Avomen and children of Africa upon this soil ; that he countenanced 
and authorized the buying and selling of human beings, and for so 
doing he charges the King with committing a crime against human 
nature itself, characterizing it as the crime of deepest die. When 
the draft of the Declaration was reported to Congress, that clause 
of it, referring to Slavery, was stricken out at the demand of South 
Carolina and Georgia, who five years ago consummated their perfidy 
by leading off in the infamous Secession acts. Thus the very be- 
ginnings of our national life were poisoned with Slavery. The 
Constitution ranked no higher, on this question, than the spirit of 
its framers, who were imbued with the spirit of the men, who with 
all their patriotism and sel.f-sacrifice, allowed the true and crowning 
glory of the Declaration of Independence to be blighted. The 
Constitution, with its guarantees, Avas the supreme law of the land. 
The President could not amend it. As President he must admin- 
ister the Government upon it. Congress alone could amend it, 
and that by a vote of two-thirds of its members, and that again 
subject to the ratification of the States and of the people. The 



17 

President could not do it. He has been criticised here and blamed. 
I think wrongfully. But if the freedom of the slave is necessary 
to the salvation of the country, then the Constitution sanctions the 
demands of necessity. The merchant captain on the high seas is a 
felon, if he throw overboard, to the value of a single dollar, the 
cargo committed to his care ; but if his vessel is on her beam ends, 
every particle of her precious cargo may and must go to the bottom 
of the sea, if necessary to save the ship. Necessity knows no law. 
That is law. The Constitution most solemnly guarantees the right 
of every citizen to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness ; it 
guards the sacred rights of property, and person, and home ; but 
if necessity require it, the Government takes the property, and the 
person, and devotes them to its uses, and the Constitution sanctions 
the demands of the necessity. The writ of Habeas Corpus, the fair- 
est and best fruit of constitutional liberty, the brightest jewel in the 
brilliants of Magna Charta, the final safeguard of the liberties of 
the people, even that may be suspended at the demand of necessity. 
So the freedom of the slave was needed for the Government ; his 
bondage was in the way of the march of our armies, and the Gov- 
ernment made him free upon the ground of Military Necessity. 
The President was right. He was cautious and entirely constitu- 
tional in his executive acts. His act was strictly within the limits 
of his oath and fidelity to the Constitution. As an executive act, 
it must be regarded as the grandest in history. It challenged dip- 
lomatic criticism. Europe dreamed that the President had made a 
great mistake, and awoke to find their intrigues bafiled. Palmer- 
ston's hand was palsied as he read of it : and Louis Napoleon was 
outreached in his cunning grasp at power by the constitutional act 
of the rail splitter. It brought the world to its knees at the feet 
of honest and indomitable Abraham Lincoln. 

But the glory, the undying glory, the ever-increasing glory of 
the Proclamation of Emancipation, is in the motive of it! The 
President's warrant for the act was one thing, his motive in it was 
another thing. His warrant for it was an incident in human legis- 
lation, his motive in it is as eternal as the Throne of God. His 
warrant for it will be forgotten, but the motive of it will shine and 
flame with the fires of a perpetual glory. His warrant for the act 
was in the letter of the Constitution, but his motive for it gives it 
all its glory in a moral point of view. It is to this motive I now 
2 



18 

call your attention, in the higher view which, as Christian citizens, 
we must take of this great act, bearing as it does, not only upon 
this land and people, but upon all lands and peoples ; not only 
upon this generation, but upon all generations to come ; and which 
concerns, not only time, but reaches to eternity and to God. It 
was not that he could play off a desperate game against our ene- 
mies, and cry " check," as the key-note of their dismay, that he 
proclaimed Emancipation. It was not merely that it gave our 
armies and our cause military advantage, by securing the sym- 
pathies of the Frecdmen, and quickening the fears of their masters, 
that he wrote, and signed, and proclaimed the bond of Emancipa- 
tion. These were results, but they were not the motive, the in- 
spiration of the act. No such motive of mere policy and strategy 
prompted the greatest deed of statesmanship that history can ever 
record. He claims Military Necessity as the ground of his act, 
not as the motive of it. Let us do honor to the distinction. For 
the justification of his act, as an executive act, he appeals to the 
Constitution ; but he does not appeal to the Constitution for the 
justification of his motive. For the justification of his motive he 
appeals to a higher and an eternal tribunal I 

What is his motive ? It is expressed in a single line ; it blos- 
soms out of a single W3rd of the Proclamation. We have over- 
looked it, I fear. The President says, " UPON THIS ACT, 
SINCERELY BELIEVED TO BE AN ACT OF JUSTICE!" 
In that single sentence is contained the motive and the inspiration 
which led him to this mighty deed ! EMANCIPATION ! " Sin- 
cerely believed to be an act of Justice ! " As an act, "Warranted 
by the Constitution upon Military Necessity," he might have ap- 
pealed for justification only to a legitimate construction of the 
Constitution; but as an act of Justice, he appeals for justi- 
fication beyond the Constitution, and beyond the country, and be- 
yond the age, and from men to God! He says, "Upon this act, 
sincerely believed to be an act of Justice warranted by the Con- 
stitution, upon Military Necessity, I invoke the considerate judg- 
ment of mankind, and the Gracious Favor of Almighty God." 

When the Proclamation went forth, sealed with such faith and 
Divine assurance, and calm trust in the Right, and sanctioned by 
such a solemn appeal to earth and heaven, to time and to eternity, 
the Rebellion was shorn of its power; disloyal men hid their faces 



19 

from sight, and lojal and strong men kissed each other in the 
streets, and wept on each other's necks. It was only a question of 
time for the advent of Peace. Every stroke of the rebellion there- 
after, was a struggle, a vain struggle with death. Justice was 
done, not mercy given, not favor bestowed, but Justice was done 
at last in behalf of millions of God's children in the land. And 
God therefore gave us the victory ! It was a righteous act, right- 
eously performed, and Righteousness exalted the nation ! 

Abraham Lincoln ! His work was then done ! He waited to 
see the salvation of God. Nor did he wait in vain. His act, 
under God, saved the country. And there never was an executive 
act in all history, which, in its motives, tendencies and forever 
accumulating results was so in the interests of Religion and of 
Christ's kingdom, as was this act. Abraham Lincoln ! He was 
ready to die. His death was the last blow of the rebellion, re- 
duced to the arm of a drunken assassin. And as our martyred 
President passed to Heaven through the wide open gates of glory, 
the Angel of Peace kissed him welcome, and then passed out on 
bright and swift wings to bless the land. 

Military Necessity has passed away, but the Proclamation of 
the President, the fair fruit and exemplification of Eternal Justice, 
remains in full force. It was no mere military expediency meas- 
ure, when Congress enacted the Constitutional Amendment, pro- 
hibiting Slavery forever in this land ; it was solemnly done as an 
act of Justice. And when the States ratified the act of Congress, 
it was an act of Justice. The freedom of the slave was proclaimed, 
and is maintained ! Our transition pangs from Slavery to Liberty, 
were awful ; the throes of the nation were appalling ! But we are 
redeemed ! The emphasis of the Constitution is the tone of uni- 
versal liberty, and the waving of the Flag in every breeze, means 
freedom for all over whom it floats ! 

Emancipation prepares the way, and leads to a higher plane of 
National life than this country has ever attained. Reconstruction 
is a new word among us, and it has its definite and appropriate po- 
litical meanings. But the word which truly characterizes our new 
national life, is. Regeneration. We are born again ! Let it be 
said — reverently — we are redeemed, not with corruptible things, 
as silver and gold, from our vain conversation, received by tradition 
from our fathers. We are delivered from the bondage of cor- 



20 

ruption, into glorious liberty. Henceforth we lead a new life : 
new principles inspire us ; a new destiny is before us. Old things 
have passed away, behold all things have become new. 

Henceforth our politics are to be projected in the plane of Mo- 
rality and Religion. The trade of the politician is to be remem- 
bered to be abhorred. The " meanly minded men who bartered free- 
dom for a rich man's feast, and sold their country for a smile," 
have gone to the moles and to the bats. Christianity asserts the 
supremacy, and what will God do unto us if we fail to honor Christ's 
title to dominion over this broad land ! " Be wise now, therefore,0 
ye Kings, be instructed, ye Judges of the earth ; serve the Lord 
with fear ; kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and ye perish from the 
way, when his wrath is kindled but a little." 

The National Life is essentially and immeasurably purer to-day 
than it ever was. The days of compromises, and of the bargain 
and sale of the National honor, are forever gone. We have done 
Justice in behalf of millions of men, women and children on our 
soil. Let it be thorough Justice. Better call men chattels, and 
make them slaves, and doom them to bondage, than to call them 
men, and withhold from them men's rights ! We ask not for mag- 
nanimity toward a long enslaved race, only for Justice and the 
Right. Right wrongs none ! With universal liberty, the tendency 
is to perfect equality before the law for all the citizens of this great 
country. Prejudices are to be overcome ; customs are to be modi- 
fied ; and character, not wealth — character^ not color — character, 
is to be the standard of the citizen and the glory of the state ; and 
a man unimpeached before the law, is to stand unchallenged at the 
ballot. We can have no politics now separate from Morality and 
Religion. We are to be Christian citizens, true to Christ, and 
therefore true to our country ; true to our country, and therefore 
true to Christ. 



LB My '13 



